Rent a car from your neighbor? Getaround launches novel mobility service in Seattle

San Francisco-based Getaround is launching in Seattle today with a transportation service that’s a bit like Airbnb for cars. The car sharing service allows people to rent their cars to their neighbors without the hassle of exchanging keys, offering a new transportation option in a city that’s become increasingly congested. Getaround equips each car in its marketplace with hardware called Getaround Connect that syncs up with a smartphone app. Users can find cars in the app, make a reservation, and unlock the car without ever meeting its owner. In newer models, the driver can just push to start. In older cars, the keys are kept securely in the vehicle. Getaround co-founder and CEO Sam Zaid said that even before officially launching, the service is seeing faster growth in Seattle than it did in San Francisco at the beginning. There are already about 60-70 cars available for rent in Seattle. “The city has tremendous traffic issues and one of the real benefits of what we do is we’re reusing the cars that are normally sitting there parked anyway so we can really help address our congested freeways and take cars off the road,” Zaid said. Unlike ReachNow or Car2Go — which place their own fleets on city streets — Getaround relies on existing car owners. Would-be drivers have the choice of selecting cars in categories such as convertible, snow, luxury and van. The service starts at $5 per hour for a basic sedan. A Porsche runs closer to $20 per hour…. [Read full story]